Volleyball Spike Mechanics Wiki
Background Information The sport of volleyball, originally called "mintonette", was invented in 1895 by William Morgan. Volleyball was designed to be a game that is a combination of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball. Each match consists of three or five games (depending on the level of play) with rally scoring. Rally scoring means that everytime the ball is served a team gets a point no matter what. Whereas traditional scoring, only the team that served will get a point as long as they won that rally. If they didnt win that rally and they were the serving team no point is given and the other team will serve. Traditional scoring is mostly used in elementary and middle school since most of the time the kids miss their serves frequently. This allows for the games to go quicker since you dont have to have possession from the beginning of the rally to earn a point. For each team, there are six people on the court. Only three people can contact the ball before it goes over the net and a player cannot touch the ball two times in a row. However, it can go over the net off one or two contacts but no more than three are allowed. The setter is one of the most important players. The setters job is to touch the ball for every second contact that is on their side. Spiking Mechanics In volleyball, the study of biomechanics helps improve a players swing and follow through. Every volleyball players wants to be a great hitter which will help their team score points and win. If a player hits the ball hard and has the proper swing, the chance of the ball returning declines significantly and then results in a point. There are three different types of spiking. There is an actual spike, a roll, and a tip. The velocity of a spike is extremely fast with alot of power. A roll has a medium velocity with little to no power. A tip has very low velocity with no power. While spiking, the other team is going to try and block your hit. As a spiker you can move your arm, turn your hand, or angle your shoulder a different way. When doing these things and when contact is made with the volleyball, it will make the ball go a different direction. This allows you to hit line, sharp cross, and deep corner. Spiking Break Down Face the net, with your body open to the volleyball/setter. The player with take a series of steps which is called an "approach". If you are right handed your approach will be...left foot, right foot, left foot. NOTE: going from the left step to the right step should be a very far gap. If you are left handed your approach will be... right foot, left foot, right foot. While doing the approach, the hitter is also using her arms and swinging them back and forth. While contacting the ball, the volleyball should be at its highest point. Your arm should be up in the air with your elbow extended. Contact should be made in front of the body or directly above but not behind. In order to hit the ball downwards, when contact is made, the player should also snap their wrist which will make the ball go down because of the forward rotation on the ball. When you land, make sure you are landing on both feet to avoid any lower extremity injuries. Biomechanical Concepts *Biomechanics: the science involved with the study of forces acting on and within biological structure and the effects produced by certain forces. Newtons 1st law example: An example of this is the hitting approach that was mentioned earlier. This allows for the volleyball player to get the maximum momentum and velocity. Since they have a quick approach this helps the player have more velocity in their vertical jump. Another example of Newton's first law is if the ball is passed or hit over the net the ball is going to continue to move in that direction until it eventually comes to a stop. In order for the volleyball to keep moving, another force needs to act on the ball and thats how the volleyball will be returned over the net. Newtons 2nd law example: After the example above, the player ends up creating a force that is greater than inertia. Newtons 3rd law example: An example of this is the contact with your feet on the ground before and after you land from a spike. This can aid in acceleration if a large force is generated. Levers: Long levers are used to increase applied force while short levers are used for fast and accelerating movements. An example would be while spiking, two levers are being combined. The short lever is the wrist which is being snapped to make the ball go downwards and the long lever is the radius and ulna. Magnus Effect: If the ball is hit and there is no spin on the ball, it is going to continue to move forward and it will slowly go downward from gravity but in general the ball will move on further. If the player wants the ball to drop quicker, the more force applied to the ball with snapping of the wrist will cause clockwise rotation. When that happens the velocity of the air above the ball becomes less than the air velocity on the bottom of the ball. This is an example of tangential velocity. Common Injuries SInce volleyball requires a large amount of power, velocity, flexibility, and muscle strength, there are a few common injuries that can occur. These include: ankle sprain, patellar tendinitis, labral tear, and ACL tear. Since the focus is on spiking, lets talk about a labral tear. A labral tear is damage to the ring of cartilage, called the labrum, located in the glenohumeral joint (shoulder). This can cause significant pain during activities that require overhead motions. You may feel poppimg, clicking, weakness, or instability. Most of the time the hitters will be the ones who end up getting a labral tear from constant overuse of their shoulders. To learn more about labral tears, visit the Links section below and follow the Labral Tear link! References Alexander MJL, Seaborn SJ. (2009) A Kinesiological Anyalysis of the Spike in Volleyball. Volleyball Tech J. ;5(3):65-69. Drakos MC, Jonas RR, Allen A, Potter HG, Altchek DW. (2009). Internal Impingement of the shoulder in the overhead Athlete 92: 2719-2728 Duvillard, P Von. (2009). Kinematic Anaylysis of Volleyball Spike Jump. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 30(10). 760-765 Lajtai, George. (2009). The Shoulders of Professional Beach Volleyball Players. 37(7). Lobietti, Roberto. (2010). Landing Techniques in Volleyball, 28(13). 1469-1476. Reeser, Johnathan. (2010). Upper Limb Biomechanics During the Volleyball Serve and Spike, 2(5).\ Google Images- all pictures posted Links How to Spike Background Information Labral Tear Category:Browse